Saturday, January 21, 2012

Star Wars Uncut -- Director's Cut

“... a remarkable indicator of the pervasive socio-cultural impact of George Lucas’ epic space opera franchise.”

Now comes the fantastic news that the crowd-sourced project known as Star Wars Uncut has finally been released in a stitched-together Director’s Cut!

From the description:

In 2009, Casey Pugh asked thousands of Internet users to remake "Star Wars: A New Hope" into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted. Within just a few months SWU grew into a wild success. The creativity that poured into the project was unimaginable.

SWU has been featured in documentaries, news features and conferences around the world for its unique appeal. In 2010 SWU won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media.

Without further ado, here it is -- all two hours of it -- maximize to full screen and grab the popcorn!

It’s a magnificent achievement of... I’m not sure what, but I find it uproarious. The best feature of this project is also its worst -- if you hate one fan’s heretical interpretation, it only lasts 15 seconds. Conversely if you love a scene... 15 seconds later a fresh blasphemy gets underway. Some parts are awful, others are wonderfully inventive.

It’s more or less unbearable to watch in its entirety, but curiosity at what’s going to show up next keeps it going... In a peculiar way, the exercise is about seizing back control of the story from George Lucas. It’s ours to mangle, not his. (Spoiler alert: It’s not Greedo that fires first in this version...)